Economic Development

In Sub-Saharan Africa, illness and death from malaria remain harsh realities. While the psychological and social consequences are keenly felt by those living in countries where the malady is most endemic, the economic implications are less well understood.

Our ongoing work on malaria shows that tackling the illness in this region will not only have positive effects for the economy as a whole, but possibly also a redistributive effect—slowing down the rising income inequality in Sub-Saharan Africa. As people across the globe mark World Malaria Day 2013 on April 25, the economics of the disease should be part of the discussion.

Spending money on malaria reduction is, from an economic perspective, a long-term investment. Whilst the effects of increasing the use of bed nets or other preventative interventions on public health are immediately visible, it will take decades before we can observe a visible impact on the economy.

This commentary appeared on South China Morning Post on December 1, 2012.

While people tend to roll their eyes when they hear a new catchphrase being unveiled by the upper echelons of the Communist Party, it is worth thinking about what the "new modernisations" might mean for the growing role of civil society in China.

The slogan refers to economic reforms—the new push for industrialisation, information technology, urbanisation and agricultural modernisation—that the new leadership has indicated it will emphasise in the next 10 years. These reforms will also have far-reaching social consequences.

In collaboration with the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation's How Housing Matters Initiative, Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity will be running a series of commentaries for the next two months exploring the relationship between housing and three topics: health, economic opportunity, and education. Please be sure to read Michael Stegman's "An Introductory Note" to learn more. This commentary is the seventh installment in the series, which is entitled "How Housing Matters to Families and Communities."

It is hardly news that the achievement gap between children from low-income and high-income families within the United States is large. But disturbing new evidence shows that the gap is growing and is now about twice the achievement gap between white and black children.

Increasingly governments in the UK and throughout Europe see R&D driven growth as the best way out of the financial crisis. Western economies, the argument goes, cannot compete with the low labour costs of manufacture base in China and India. Since the boom of the financial sector went bust, the best of what is left are our knowledge, ideas and our capacity to innovate.

The Government identifies the "UK's world-class research base" as a key driver of economic growth. But does the evidence of returns from public investment in R&D match the rhetoric?

Evidence-based indicators in science, technology and innovation (STI) help governments across the world to formulate policies and identify opportunities for development. The second round of a survey designed to capture such indicators across Africa, a project sponsored by SIDA, was recently launched in Ethiopia.

But if STI indicators are to contribute effectively to a sustainable path towards social and technological transformation, they need to be sensitive to the African context. Comparisons of indicators such as research and development (R&D) expenditure between African countries must not dominate policy discussions.

In absolute terms, the U.S. increased its GDP, population and military spending from 2000 to 2010. In relative terms, the story is not always as good, especially in GDP. This commentary appeared in Wall Street Journal on April 13, 2011.

It's fashionable among academics and pundits to proclaim that the U.S. is in decline and no longer No. 1 in the world. The declinists say they are realists. In fact, their alarm is unrealistic.

Early declinists like Yale historian Paul Kennedy focused in the 1980s on the allegedly debilitating effects of America's "imperial overstretch." More recently, historians Niall Ferguson and Martin Jacques focus on the weakening of the economy. Among pundits, Paul Krugman and Michael Kinsley on the left and Mark Helprin on the right sound the alarm.